[/caption]Shrimp Cocktail anyone? How's about some gazpacho? The all time favorite liquid lunch from the southern region of Spain called Andalusia. Gazpacho is probably the best known dish in all of Andalusia and with good reason, it's delicious! I love Gazpacho because it's easy to make and it's loaded with vitamins and nutrition, but the best part is that it's especially delicious during the brutal summers of the great southwest where I live. We get summer days here as high as 115F. or higher!
I love soups all year round, but I don't want to eat hot soup when at nine at night it is still 90F. outside. Here's the kicker, the same ingredients that you would use to make gazpacho also makes a killer Mexican shrimp cocktail. Read on!
Gazpacho comes in many varieties depending on region or time of year. Some will come with tomatoes and some without tomatoes. Some will come with almonds(ever hear of gazpacho with almonds! Yup! There is!) and some without almonds. One of the ingredients in classic Spanish gazpacho is red wine vinegar and some food writers that I have read think that the addition of the red wine vinegar may point to a connection with the Roman empire and the Spanish as recipes developed over time and cultures exchanged influences in all areas of life including food.
Andalusian gazpacho was historically made by hand in a large mortar and pestle setup by adding the veggies and week old break and pounding it into a paste and then the tomatoes would get added along with the olive oil, red wine vinegar and other ingredients and pounded into the desired consistency. Mexican shrimp cocktail on the other hand is made of basically the same ingredients as gazpacho, but these ingredients will not be pounded, food processed or blended with week old bread as a thickener to make a gazpacho recipe. Instead the ingredients for this shrimp cocktail will get finely chopped/diced for the crunchy texture and no bread will be added.
Gazpacho is THE soup/salad of Spain and it has been a popular dish in the U.S.A for a long time now. Most of us have had gazpacho in Mexican restaurants and the Mexican gazpacho recipe is very much the same as the Spanish gazpacho recipe but with some subtle differences. In the Mexican gazpacho recipe white vinegar will be used instead of red wine vinegar. Also, in the Mexican gazpacho recipe there will be oregano added that you will not usually find in the Andalusian gazpacho recipe and in the Mexican gazpacho recipe you will find jalapeno peppers added whereas in the Spanish gazpacho recipe you will find bell pepper. Here is another one, in the Mexican gazpacho recipe will use white or brown onion whereas the Spanish gazpacho recipe will use purple onion and the Mexican recipe will use dill weed whereas the Spanish gazpacho recipe will use chives.
These are just some subtle little difference and not matter how it is made gazpacho is delicious! So today I thought I would make a modified version of a gazpacho recipe that will lean a little more toward the Mexican style which will be a bit more spicy than it's Andalusian gazpacho recipe counterpart. I have a friend Ernie here where I live and he had a Mexican restaurant that unfortunately closed because of the economy that we are in. One of the local faves from his appetizer list was his Mexican shrimp cocktail. I called Ernie and asked him if I could make this recipe for my blog and he gave me the go ahead. I love to make this dish during the hot summer months, it is cooling and really refreshing. So, I am going to share with you how to make my version of Ernie's Mexican shrimp cocktail.
Ingredients:
1 lb bag of large 26-30 or extra large 16-20 shrimp or more depending on size of serving glasses and the amount of shrimp you will want to put on rim of each glass.
6 tomatoes peeled and chopped.
1 brown or white onion peeled and finely chopped/diced.
1 cucumber peeled, seeded and chopped fine.
4 jalapeno peppers seeded/not seeded and chopped fine. You can add more if you really want to bring the heat! You can also use any chili pepper that you want. In the video I used chopped Hatch green chilies from New Mexico, they have an excellent taste!
2 celery stalks finely diced.
2 Tbsp. fine chopped cilantro.
2 clove garlic minced. (I usually use 1 clove garlic for every two people.)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar or white vinegar. Red leans toward the Spanish recipes and white leans toward the Mexican recipe. I am using red wine vinegar for this recipe.
1/4 cup olive oil.
2 to 4 fresh squeezed limes. (Have some extra limes on hand for people to add more lime juice if they like.)
1 Tsp. oregano bulb crushed.
2 Tsp. sugar.
4 cups tomato juice.
3+ avocados depending on size pitted, peeled and chopped medium to medium fine. Avocado acts to thicken and make the cocktail sauce really creamy when eaten so you can add more avocado if you wish!
1 Tsp. Worcestershire sauce. (optional)
Salt/Pepper to taste.
Optional: Add 10 drops of your favorite hot sauce or don't add any and let your guests add their own to their tastes. Have extra quartered limes on hand for people who like to add an extra jolt of lime juice to their cocktail.
Instructions: Combine all of the ingredients in a glass mixing bowl. Don't use plastic or some kind of reactive metal bowl as this will effect the taste of the mix. Let this mixture sit in the fridge for a minimum of two hours before serving. Let stand in refrigerator overnight the flavors to maximally marry. Then serve in a large cocktail glass or wine glass. Put some of the mixture in the glass and then add chopped avocado and then add more of the mixture and then more avocado in layers then put shrimp around the rim of the glasses and serve. Enjoy!
Note: This recipe is a basic outline for serving 8 people but can differ a bit for everybody because of things like the size and kind of tomato and other veggies used and the serving size of the glasses that you put the cocktail in.
[caption id="attachment_935" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Mexican Shrimp Cocktail-Click To Enlarge"]
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